Montrealers change vacation plans to Cuba as flights suspended due to aviation fuel shortage

As flights from Canada’s major airlines to Cuba were suspended because of an aviation fuel shortage, as the Trump administration attempts to cut Cuba off from using traditional fuel sources, Montrealers have been changing their plans to the popular vacation destination that sees many Quebecers go there. 

“Yes, I was considering Cuba at the beginning, but then, with exactly what happened with Trump, I just decided to go somewhere else,” said Erick at the Montreal-Trudeau airport.

“I was planning to go to Cuba at the beginning, but with what happened with Trump and Venezuela. So, I just had a change of mind, I changed plans, and I decided to go somewhere else because I knew something bad was going to happen. And now I’m quite happy to have changed my mind.”

Gavin Thompson, an Ottawa resident who also had to change vacation plans to Cuba, said, “My family, I have two young daughters and a wife, we were planning a trip to Cuba in March, and things started to get a little bit precarious, so we started to look around and we decided to switch the trip to the Dominican Republic.”

Adding, “It was really the idea that the travel advisories were starting to show up and we wanted to get ahead of the curve and make sure that we were able to switch our trip before everyone else was scrambling to do the same thing.”

Flights from Air Canada, Air Transat, and WestJet have all suspended service to Cuba for the time being and could resume in late April or early May. 

“I had plans, but I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed that some planes were cancelled because I can still reschedule and find other solutions to spend my vacation in April, let’s say,” said Oksana Mehedyniuk, a Montrealer.

Gábor Lukács, the president of Air Passenger Rights, says that people who have purchased flights to Cuba that have been cancelled can either get a refund or insist that the airline provide an alternative flight on a competitor’s airline, should they exist. 

“But if there are no carriers at all, they don’t have to put the passengers on a boat, they don’t have to actually send the passenger to a different vacation destination,” said Lukács.

“You also have the right to a full refund in such situations, and personally, that’s what I would recommend doing, unless you have a good reason to fly.”

The Association of Quebec Travel Agents says that people who have booked vacations to Cuba should be getting refunds and that they should rebook their vacations to other destinations sooner rather than later, as prices could go up.

“Cuba was always the cheapest flight, so finding something at a similar range might be difficult, probably impossible. However, for about $500 more, there are some destinations in the Northern Dominican Republic and other destinations as well that are available for slightly more amount,” said Moscou Coté, the president of Association des Agents de Voyages du Québec (AAVQ).

“There are ways to get to Cuba through Panama or Mexico, but that is not what is recommended right now.”

Erick, however, says, “I’ve been following the embargo that the United States been doing with Cuba, so for a long time, for the longest time, and not only Trump, but even before that. And I knew that Venezuela was giving out the gas over to Cuba, and now exactly what happened with Trump, so yeah, there it is.”